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Many Celestron digital microscopes are Mac compatible with most Macs using OS 10.4.9 versions and higher. However, at this time, Celestron does not include Mac image capture software with the microscopes.

Macs come bundled with various versions of native Apple software like iChat, iPhoto, Photo Booth and iMovie. Depending on the specific Mac OS and the specific program versions, these programs may work directly with our microscopes simply by choosing the microscope as the source of the video or images.

If you have a Mac Tiger OS 10.4.9 or higher version of OS 10.4 and can’t get iChat to deliver images, try these steps.

iChat can be used with the program iUSBCam to get images from your digital microscope.

The program (usable with Mac Tiger OS 10.4 and earlier) is available from Ecamm:

http://www.ecamm.com/mac/iusbcam/

Download either the trial version or buy the software.

To use this combination, first, if iChat is running, quit it. The download is a zipped file. Save it to the desktop and then click it to extract the files. Click on the unzipped iUSBCam folder. Inside it click on the Install iUSBCam file.

Once the installer has run, click Open iChat. Plug in the microscope.

In iChat, go to Video > Video Preview. You should now see the microscope video.

Check the settings in iChat: Be sure that the Video > Camera Enabled setting Is checked.

Video > iUSBCam > Change Video Source: It should say Celestron Digital Microscope for most of our models. Present and recent models it works with include: #44301, #44302 and #44302-A Handheld Digital Microscopes, #44306, #44421, #44330 and the current (2011) #44320.

Capture a snapshot by choosing Video > Take Snapshot.

If it doesn't work right away, try restarting iChat. Then try restarting your Mac after unplugging the microscope. Once the Mac's going, plug in the microscope and start IChat.

By Installing the macam component into your Mac's Quicktime library you can get iChat display images from these older microscope models: #44420 and older #44320.

Go to the macam website: http://webcam-osx.sourceforge.net/

Once you've downloaded macam, click on its icon on your desktop. Then copy the macam.component to the  /Library/QuickTime/  folder on your Mac.

Plug in your microscope. You will now be able to use iChat's Video Preview and Take Snapshot as described above for the other microscope models.